The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the high speed traying of envelopes, and in particular, a method and apparatus for high speed delivery of envelopes directly into a postal carrier tray; specifically a method and apparatus for moving an empty postal tray into an envelope receiving position, rapidly delivering a continuous stream of envelopes into the postal tray until full, automatically removing the tray when full, and moving a subsequent empty postal tray into the envelope receiving position without interrupting the continuous stream of envelopes.
Many businesses and postal services utilize high speed mail processing machines to rapidly produce and/or process completed mail pieces, such as stuffed envelopes. Completed mail pieces from such machines must then ultimately be placed into a postal carrier trays. Typically, these envelopes are accumulated in stacks, and then the stack is delivered to the postal tray.
A known device for the automatic traying of a stack of envelopes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,790 entitled xe2x80x9cAutomatic Traying and Automatic Sweeping Device for Letter Mail,xe2x80x9d issued to Romanenko et al. on Sep. 20, 1994. This device accumulated envelopes in an accumulating chamber above a postal tray, and then drops the accumulated stack through a trap door arrangement. However, such a device is relatively cumbersome and time consuming. Further, the dropping process of such a device is loud and tends to disrupt the stack, resulting in improper traying and/or the lose of mail pieces from time to time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus to load mail pieces directly into a postal tray in a smooth, efficient and quiet operation. The present invention fulfills such a need.
The present invention comprises a method and apparatus for high speed delivery of envelopes directly into a postal carrier tray. Specifically, the present invention comprises a tray fill head assembly which receives a continuous stream of envelopes and rapidly delivers the same into a postal tray; a tray fill conveyor assembly which moves empty postal trays into an envelope receiving position below the tray fill head assembly and automatically removes the trays when full, replacing the full tray with an empty tray without interrupting the continuous stream of envelopes; and a tray feed assembly which holds a plurality of postal trays and selectively delivers the trays one at a time to the tray fill conveyor assembly.
Accordingly, it is the principle object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the high speed traying of mail pieces such as envelopes.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for high speed delivery of envelopes directly into a postal carrier tray.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for moving an empty postal tray into an envelope receiving position, rapidly delivering a continuous stream of envelopes into the postal tray until full, automatically removing the tray when full, and moving a subsequent empty postal tray into the envelope receiving position without interrupting the continuous stream of envelopes.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a tray fill head assembly for receiving mail pieces and delivering them to a postal tray in a smooth, efficient and quiet manner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tray fill conveyor assembly for repeatedly positioning empty postal trays under a tray fill head assembly, and removing the same once full without interrupting the stream of mail pieces.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a tray feed assembly for selectively feeding a plurality of postal trays one at a time to a tray fill conveyor assembly.
Numerous other advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, from the claims, and from the accompanying drawings in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same.